How would a KKK led USA looks like?

RousseauX

Donor
There really was no Klan position as such on most economic issues. Politicians who were members of or backed by the Klan ranged from ultra-conservatives to progressives like Hugo Black. Klansmen sometimes broke strikes and sometimes supported them.

Really, a lot of people are making assumptions based on an oversimplified image of the Klan as a tightly-controlled centralized organization imposing a "line" on every issue on everyone affiliated with it--like the Communist Party.
The Klan would have being left-leaning on economic issues: "welfare for white people", Woodrew Wilson was progressive economically and the core of a KKK US government would have being poor southern whites which otl were the core of the new deal coalition and had being part of economically populist, anti-business/bank coalitions dating back to Andrew Jackson.
 

Vuru

Banned
Sudden loss of manpower and general bullshit

But like all ideologies that got into power the first time, it would gradually become "softer", see USSR for a similar occurrence
 

RousseauX

Donor
Also in the 20th century after the 1950s, the people who most closely resembled the KKK and ran for POTUS were George Wallace, Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump

its no accident all of them refuse to cut social security or medicare: it's because the core of such a coalition are poor white people who need government assistance
 
Hughes wins in 1916 and joins WW1. Harding dies earlier, and a brokered 1920 GOP Convention picks a Governor (preferably Indiana) as a compromise candidate. His KKK membership is secret.

He wins, and have his VP "killed" by a supposed communist immigrant or communist black. Could be false flag. His KKK membership is now public and the numbers in the group swell as national fevor gets several anti black laws passed (like OTL Mann Act) with the NAACP and other groups targeted and arrested. Immigration (except from Nordic nations) is ended. Jim Crow is now nationwide except for some major northern cities. Black newspapers are shut down for "traitorous" statements.

Lots of pro Klan movies and radio specials are produced. Anything against the Klan produced in Hollywood is suppressed. The separation of church and state is blurred with biblical statements printed on money and painting and statutes displayed in government buildings. Massive rallies are held in the Midwest corn fields with thousands of members.

The KKK basically starts controlling several governors, state houses, senators, and congressman. They use fear tactics and imitation to suppress voters Eventually the Great Depression starts (probably much worst) and the nation is sick and tired of the KKK and votes for a Republican candidate who is nominates without southern support. A scandal like OTL surely would have broken out.

I suspect a violent insurrection by the KKK to stay in power occurs. They will be defeated but the violence won't end until WW2 and the country turns strongly against racism like the nazis

If they remain in power (through the shadows of course), how would they react to the attack on Pearl Harbour? It might be stretching it a bit, but let's say that they still embargo Japan, and the attack happens as OTL
 
The Klan would have being left-leaning on economic issues: "welfare for white people", Woodrew Wilson was progressive economically and the core of a KKK US government would have being poor southern whites which otl were the core of the new deal coalition and had being part of economically populist, anti-business/bank coalitions dating back to Andrew Jackson.

In 1924 the Klan was perfectly OK with the conservatives Calvin Coolidge and (at least until he denounced them) John W. Davis; it directed its fire against La Follette. "Both Coolidge and Davis are nationals and Americans," Imperial Wizard Evans said. https://books.google.com/books?id=4CKHfGfNhIQC&pg=PT176 And, as I have repeatedly pointed out, Wilson was not a Klan sympathizer. https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...te-woodrow-wilson.402116/page-2#post-13471264

This is not to say that the Klan was particularly "conservative" on economic issues any more than it was particularly "radical." It appealed to people of different classes and different economic views.
 
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I was thinking like Apartheid South Africa, non-Christian, non-white become little more than slaves and the left gutted
 
I concur. Not even slave owners would want to kill off the blacks, since for obvious reasons it would ruin the economy, and to the Klan, the ideal world would be blacks in a permanent slave-like condition.
And they'd have to pick their own cotton.Real work,the horror!
 
A minimum three sided civil war would brew up quickly.The KKK was never fully unifed,it wasn't designed to be.We are talking about athoritarian individuals who want power.Due to the nature of the KKK internal power struggles will get violent and out of hand quickly, their opponents will take advantage of that quickly.
 

Wallet

Banned
If they remain in power (through the shadows of course), how would they react to the attack on Pearl Harbour? It might be stretching it a bit, but let's say that they still embargo Japan, and the attack happens as OTL
A KKK led US is going to be VERY isolationist. They won't care about Europe or Asia and especially China. Foreign affairs are going to be ignored.

The military is going to be completely domesticated and dedicated to rooting out communists and black organizations. Also large scale riots and protests. There won't be a ship in china and no embargo. The Philippines will declare independence. A somewhat independent president will intervene but a true KKK president will just ignore it.

Japan would take advantage against a free Philippines but no attacking the US that's clearly more racists against their race. Or even another European power or the League of Nations.

Summary: Philippines leave US control, no US ships in China, no embargo, no pacific war
 
I had an idea like this years back -- basically, Europe goes to hell in 1923, leading to economic crisis, which leads to the Democrats winning in 1924, except TTL they nominate William McAdoo, with the full support of the KKK; then, as a butterfly, DC Stephens isn't outed as a rapist, so that when a Senate seat opens up in 1925, he gets the position; come 1928, he's the GOP running mate, and an assassination later, rises to the Presidency.
 
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There really was no Klan position as such on most economic issues. Politicians who were members of or backed by the Klan ranged from ultra-conservatives to progressives like Hugo Black.

Incidentally, Black only expressed regret about one of the organizations he joined. No, not the Klan, but the (then) very stuffy and conservative American Bar Association...
 
IIRC organizations promoting civil rights like the NAACP long predated MLK. Assuming the KKK acted to suppress such groups, what would the blacks do? What MLK actually did hoping to turn public opinion in their favor? Or leave the US and go to Canada, Liberia or the UK?
Btw in the late '30s the German American Bund seemed to be growing, though I'd assume they'd have to accept nongermans and broaden their base to gain power. I don't know much about the Bund, but I'd assume they were more respectable for a time than the KKK with burning crosses, grand wizards and white robes...

Why would the German American Bund be any more acceptable than the Klan, unless this is the late 1930s Klan we're talking about. The Klan were American nationalists, the German American Bund were there to support a foreign government and foreign country.

Hughes wins in 1916 and joins WW1. Harding dies earlier, and a brokered 1920 GOP Convention picks a Governor (preferably Indiana) as a compromise candidate. His KKK membership is secret.

He wins, and have his VP "killed" by a supposed communist immigrant or communist black. Could be false flag. His KKK membership is now public and the numbers in the group swell as national fevor gets several anti black laws passed (like OTL Mann Act) with the NAACP and other groups targeted and arrested. Immigration (except from Nordic nations) is ended. Jim Crow is now nationwide except for some major northern cities. Black newspapers are shut down for "traitorous" statements.

Lots of pro Klan movies and radio specials are produced. Anything against the Klan produced in Hollywood is suppressed. The separation of church and state is blurred with biblical statements printed on money and painting and statutes displayed in government buildings. Massive rallies are held in the Midwest corn fields with thousands of members.

The KKK basically starts controlling several governors, state houses, senators, and congressman. They use fear tactics and imitation to suppress voters Eventually the Great Depression starts (probably much worst) and the nation is sick and tired of the KKK and votes for a Republican candidate who is nominates without southern support. A scandal like OTL surely would have broken out.

I suspect a violent insurrection by the KKK to stay in power occurs. They will be defeated but the violence won't end until WW2 and the country turns strongly against racism like the nazis

Was Harding actually a KKK member OTL? I've seen conflicting statements about it. Regardless of whether he was or not, it isn't totally ASB for him to join the Klan.

Pro-Klan movies? I suppose the entirety of Thomas Dixon's Ku Klux Klan Trilogy could be adapted into film, although I bet that even in the day, Birth of a Nation is going to be the only one well-liked.

There really was no Klan position as such on most economic issues. Politicians who were members of or backed by the Klan ranged from ultra-conservatives to progressives like Hugo Black. Klansmen sometimes broke strikes and sometimes supported them.

Really, a lot of people are making assumptions based on an oversimplified image of the Klan as a tightly-controlled centralized organization imposing a "line" on every issue on everyone affiliated with it--like the Communist Party.

I wonder if even attempting to establish a Klan position (within the Klan itself) on those issues would mean that even the second Klan ruling America is ASB.

The Klan would have being left-leaning on economic issues: "welfare for white people", Woodrew Wilson was progressive economically and the core of a KKK US government would have being poor southern whites which otl were the core of the new deal coalition and had being part of economically populist, anti-business/bank coalitions dating back to Andrew Jackson.

Strengthening the Klan in the South would get them into conflict with local political machines. But I suppose these are yet other groups for the Klan to somehow co-opt.
 
All non-whites on American soil would be rounded up and executed en masse for being "diseased animals", leading to economic ruin from the sudden loss in manpower, and eventually, a Second American Civil War that would see the KKK destroyed, and possibly lead to an earlier entry by the US into World War I if their military strength remains the same.

That sounds un likely.
 
Why would the German American Bund be any more acceptable than the Klan, unless this is the late 1930s Klan we're talking about. The Klan were American nationalists, the German American Bund were there to support a foreign government and foreign country.

Sure I said to gain power the Bund would have to broaden its base of support i.e. not appear exclusively for Germans or Germany. But even as it was it did try to disguise its nature, for example its best known rally was a salute not to Hitler but George Washington.
 
Sure I said to gain power the Bund would have to broaden its base of support i.e. not appear exclusively for Germans or Germany. But even as it was it did try to disguise its nature, for example its best known rally was a salute not to Hitler but George Washington.

That would be elections. German bund vs KKK.

------------------------------------------------
DNN - Darwin News Network

"And topic of curent poitical debate is "how to fund extermination camps" my name is David Lane and I am moderating this debate bewtween KKK and german Bund.
KKK: We can fund curent efforts by Isusing more bonds...
Bund: No, this way how our banking system is run is not susitenable...
"
 
Was Harding actually a KKK member OTL? I've seen conflicting statements about it. Regardless of whether he was or not, it isn't totally ASB for him to join the Klan.

Pro-Klan movies? I suppose the entirety of Thomas...

.

Darn I read it like
"Pro-Klan movies? I suppose the entirety of
Thomas the Tank Engine " I am really creative person but I can not imigine how you could turn Thomas the Tank engine in to pro KKK Character.
Maybe he would be white and he would run on White power while main antigonist would black engines powered by coal. But this is about it.
 
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